A bill supported by first lady Melania Trump that would fight revenge porn cleared Congress Monday.
The bill, which passed the Senate in February, passed the House 409-2 vote and now heads to President Donald Trump for his signature, according to Fox News.
The Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks is known as the Take it Down Act.
Today, the House took a critical step to combat the growing online publication of real and deepfake nonconsensual intimate images with the passage of the Take It Down Act.
I want to thank First Lady Melania Trump for championing this important legislation that empowers and… pic.twitter.com/x7JxWnUPt9
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 28, 2025
“Advancing this legislation has been a key focus since I returned to my role as First Lady this past January. I am honored to have contributed to guiding it through Congress. By safeguarding children from hurtful online behavior today, we take a vital step in nurturing our leaders of tomorrow,” Melania Trump posted on X.
Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Eric Burlison of Missouri opposed the bill.
Tonight we’re voting on the “TAKE IT DOWN Act,” a bill that would impose federal criminal and civil penalties for publishing unauthorized intimate pictures generated with AI.
I’m voting NO because I feel this is a slippery slope, ripe for abuse, with unintended consequences. pic.twitter.com/i3XhWTibP8
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 28, 2025
In a post on X, Massie said the bill “would impose federal criminal and civil penalties for publishing unauthorized intimate pictures generated with AI.”
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“I’m voting NO because I feel this is a slippery slope, ripe for abuse, with unintended consequences,” he wrote.
The bill “generally prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of individuals, both authentic and computer-generated, and requires certain online platforms to promptly remove such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence,” Fox reported.
Earlier tonight, the House passed my bill, the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
It is now headed to @POTUS’s desk.
This bill empowers young women and men who are victims of the scourge of deepfake and revenge non-consensual intimate imagery, which is a huge victory for all Americans online. pic.twitter.com/8mpNlcxjCO
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) April 28, 2025
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said his support for the bill came through an interaciotn with Elliston Berry, a child impacted by an AI deepfake when she was 14, according to the Daily Mail, which noted that a classmate used AI to take a picture of Berry and turn it into a fake nude of her.
“Elliston’s mom said she had called Snapchat, she emailed them, she tried repeatedly take this garbage down of my daughter, and she’d got no response at all, no movement,” Cruz said, reporting that Snapchat acted after he called its CEO.
“It should not take a sitting senator or sitting member of Congress picking up the phone to get a picture down or a video down. It should be the right of every American, every teenage girl victimized, should have the right to get this garbage taken down, and this bill will give them that right as a matter of federal law,” he said.
The bill bans “intimate visual depictions” of an adult “where publication is intended to cause or does cause harm to the subject, and where the depiction was published without the subject’s consent or, in the case of an authentic depiction, was created or obtained under circumstances where the adult had a reasonable expectation of privacy,” as well as “a minor subject where publication is intended to abuse or harass the minor or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person,” Fox reported.
I know what it’s like to have something stolen from you that you can never get back. To have your privacy ripped away without your consent.
For every victim who felt powerless and alone, this is for you.
Tonight the House passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act to crack down on… pic.twitter.com/0wkp7Dg63s
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) April 28, 2025
The bill requires that online platforms to have a process in place where victims of revenge porn can notify a site and then remove the image within 48 hours.
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